...Analysis of Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants” In Ernest Hemingway's short story "Hills Like White Elephants," the decision on whether or not to have an abortion puts strain on the characters’ relationship. The two characters, Jig and the American, have differing views on abortion. Hemingway uses the elements of symbolism and dialogue to portray such a serious conversation in which a major life decision is about to be made. Like the proverbial elephant in the room that everyone sees, but no one wants to acknowledge, not once is the subject of abortion mentioned, but it is implied. The reader must be willing to read what is not there. While most writers set the stage for their readers, Hemingway leaves the interpretation completely up to the reader. This story takes place in 1926 in Spain, a country where abortion was illegal until 2009 (“History of Abortion”.) The fact that the procedure was illegal is probably why the word abortion was never mentioned during their public conversation in the bar. Money is obviously not an issue for the American as referenced to the many hotel stickers on their suitcases and as we know, money can buy anything including medical services. Jig is interpreted as a young and naïve girl, who is struggling with the decision that is laid upon her. The American is interpreted as an harsh, manly man who is adamant during his dialogue about what he wants, even to the point of trying to downplay the procedure by stating that it was an “awfully...
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...two main characters, one is female and the other is a male, having a conversation at a train station. Throughout the conversation the pair drinks beer and discusses whether to have an operation or not. Through the interaction between the female and male, Hemingway illustrates the manipulative nature of men and ultimately male dominance in heterosexual relationships. The conversation the couple is having is about an operation that the male wants the woman to have. While the couple never actually says what the operation is for, Hemingway provides clues about the operation, by having the male say “They just let the air in and it’s all perfectly natural” (230). The male then calls the operation “not really an operation at all” (230) and says of the female’s ailment “It’s the only thing that’s made us unhappy” (230). From these clues the reader can reasonably infer that the operation is an abortion. The wording used in these statements also indicates that the male is trying to convince the female to have an abortion. In an attempt to manipulate the female into getting an abortion or perhaps to force a miscarriage the male repeatedly orders the woman alcoholic beverages. He also keeps repeating how the operation is “awfully simple” (230), and “perfectly simple” (230). He tells her “I’ve known lots of people that have done it” (230). The male then proceeds to tell the female that if she goes through with the abortion “we can have everything”, “we can have the whole world” (231). He also...
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...Gender relations and women’s rights have been expressed through poetry, novels and short stories for generations. Two short stories written around the late 1800’s show an expression of women’s rights in many ways. These stories are Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin, and Hills like White Elephants by, Ernest Hemmingway. Both short stories have hidden messages and gender related views that are not quite obvious. I will compare and contrast these two stories in depth and distinguish the many elements of feminism and women’s rights. Story of an Hour is about a middle aged woman named Ms. Mallard who was told her husband had just been killed in a train wreck. Friends and family came to her aid to console her as the news was delivered. At first Ms. Mallard looked disheartened and upset, but then broke out in happiness and relief. She would keep whispering “Free! Body and soul free!” Everyone was baffled by her reaction and pondered the reasons she felt such relief; they thought she was ill. Ms. Mallard was not crazy because in her mind she was finally a free woman. In the story there is a statement about her marriage, “Yet she had loved him—sometimes. Often she had not.” Every marriage had its ups and downs, but there is underlying information that no one knows about her past. The joy that came over her body was so powerful and described as “monstrous” that her hear was racing and her emotions were running wild. As she is in the middle of this joy, her husband walks in the door; she...
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...window and there is paint on the curtain saying “Anis Del Toro”. It was apparently a famous drink and they ordered two of them. Their regular conversation suddenly turned in to an argument after she compared the hills with white elephants. Jig is pregnant and that has made the couple unhappy. The American tries to convince Jig into having an abortion if she wants to. She says that she wants to have the abortion but only because that she no longer cares about herself. The American tells her not to do it for that reason. Their argument escalates quickly and they order two extra drinks just before their train arrives. The story is written in a 3rd person narrator. The narrator is a “fly on the wall” and observes everything about what the two characters “Jig” and the American say and how they act. In this story we follow the two characters the American and “Jig” through the whole time. This story is primarily a conversation between the two of them but they are having big communication issues. They both talk a lot but they do not listen to each other at all. Their conversation is characterized by a lot of frustration and irritation. While the American tells Jig that he loves her and that everything will be as how they used to be, she becomes irritated and she seems like she wants to have an abortion just to put an end to the conversation. The...
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...Hemingway’s Hills Like White Elephants is a short fiction depicting two people waiting at a bar for their incoming train. At first, when going over the story, it appears the man and the woman are simply engaging in a casual conversation. However upon reading a little closely, one will realize that the lurking tension between them, and that their casual conversation is actually about the woman getting an abortion. This story is a great example of integral setting, this means that the place and time of the story influences the characters, the themes and the plot itself. In such a story, the plot line itself is tied to the setting(s), therefore the action could not be taking place in any other location, time etc. Using this type of setting, Hemingway controls his characters and the way the story will go and how...
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...that man that the hills in the distance remind her of "white elephants." (Hemingway). The man says that he does not think they look like white elephants. This sparks a little argument between them, which the woman tries to avoid by pointing out a painting which is advertising liquor. The couple decides to have some more drinks. As they continue to drink their conversation remains tense. The man than begins trying to convince jig to have an abortion, But only, he says, if she wants to. He explains to her how simple of an operation it is. Jig wants to know if this will solve their problems, and get their relationship back on track (Hemingway). He tells her that their relationship is on track, but that he is distracted because of his "worry" over the pregnancy (Gummy). She agrees to have the abortion, but says she is only agreeing because she no longer cares about herself. The woman is trying to make the man feel guilty. Without actually saying it the man tells jig that he is willing to have the baby, but implies that he would prefer that she have the abortion. He then responds by saying he doesn’t want her to have the abortion if she doesn’t want it. The woman is worried because she wants to have the baby, but does not want to lose him. The man is content with their current life and does not want it to change. The story ends buy the man picking up the bags and going to the other side of the tracks. There is a lot of dispute on what this could mean....
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...miscarriages) end in abortion. Abortion is a highly controversial topic throughout all age groups. Being a very non- controversial person this is about the only thing that I have ever had an opinion on. I am an anti- abortionist. I have grown up in the Catholic Church and that right there may say a lot to someone. Because of my religious beliefs I have always thought that abortion was the wrong choice because that is what I was taught through the religion I follow. The other side of this topic is the people who are pro- choice, which I always saw as wrong. With this being the topic of this paper I knew exactly who I was going to “take to lunch” and that is my best friend who I had just assumed had the same views as I did until we were faced with it in a real life situation. Catie is my best friend more like sister of 14 years she had moved away to attend college in California and it was our second semester of freshman year in college when I got a panicked call from my best friend telling me she was pregnant and she didn’t know what to do. This is why she is the person I have chosen to sit down with and have this conversation. Until now we have just avoided the conversation. My best friend Catie and I went to lunch, ok kind of, we got taco bell from the drive thru and drove around the beach back in our hometown Dunedin. Being as close as we are I came straight to her and said listen I need help with my speech paper and we are going to have to discuss our views on abortion. She was totally...
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...issue here being the ‘simple operation’ that Jig is about to undergo which happens to be an abortion. Set in the early 1920s, the idea of abortion is as irrational and controversial as today’s ongoing debate over gay marriage. Although the term abortion is never used in the story, the imagery Hemingway uses along with the language and behavior of the characters gives way for one explanation – Jig is getting an abortion. Of the many symbols Hemingway uses, the theme of abortion is evident in the white elephant hills that have the “coloring of … skin through the trees” (Hemingway, 1). The white hills, as described in the setting, parallels a pregnant woman lying on her back with the hills being relative to the womb. In addition, the white color of the hills would represent the purity of the unborn child the woman bears. Furthermore, the fields of grain and trees along the river would represent the fertility that the woman embodies throughout the story. Her body being the fertile land on which the white hills were. The trees along the hills being the distorting factor of her mindset on going through with the abortion as the American persist throughout the story. The longer they talk about it, the more it becomes apparent to the reader that the girl is becoming increasingly agitated with the conversation and how easy the American is making the operation to be. During the conversation of the American and the woman, the man is constantly pressing Jig to acknowledge that the operation...
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...Darren Maracin Dr. Patrick Wasley English 445 20 November 2015 Importance of Theme: Hills like White Elephants by Ernest Hemingway After analyzing Hemingway’s Hills like White Elephants, the reader can find that it is not your average story with a beginning, middle, and end. Hemingway does a phenomenal job of forcing the reader to think critically—giving just enough information for the reader to make assumptions and draw their own conclusions. The story itself is centered on a man and a woman having an emotional conversation filled with frustration and misunderstanding. Hemingway’s use of theme is important to this entire conversation between the two characters, and will give the reader more understanding of who the characters are and the situation they are faced with. The three major themes of this work that will be analyzed is alcohol as a comping mechanism, loss, and selfishness. This analysis of theme will also help to reinforce the characters thoughts, feelings, and emotions. American author, Ernest Hemingway, was born in the small town of Oak Park, Illinois in 1899 and died in Idaho, 1961. Hemingway began his career as a writer at the age of 17 for a newspaper office in Kansas City. When the United States entered the First World War, Hemingway joined as a volunteer to the ambulance unit in the Italian army. While serving, Hemingway was wounded, spending time in several hospitals until returning to the United States. When Hemingway returned, he became a reporter...
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...of work they can. As the conversation takes off Elisa states she does not have any work for him. “I think you’ll save time if you go back to the Salinas road and pick up the highway there” (Steinbeck 584). Although she tells him she does not want any of his merchandise, such as pots, pans, knives, scissors, and lawn mores. “His eyes left her face and fell to searching the ground. They roamed about until they came to the chrysanthemums bed where she had been working” (Steinbeck 584). “Chrysanthemums” are her most prized possessions. This shows the influence that setting has on the events throughout the short story; because Elisa was so closed off to the world that she wasn’t even aware that the great depression was going on. She didn’t realize the sales man’s tactics. She gives the man fifty cents for the work that he has done. Similarly to “The Chrysanthemums” the setting had a huge impact on “Hills like White Elephants.” It took place in the white hills valley by the train station between Madrid and Barcelona Spain. The girl and the American were at a bar drinking, in the train station between the rails. One side was leading to Barcelona and the other was heading to Madrid. This represents whether they will continue their life together or go their separate ways. Just like the rails the American and the girl came to a crossroad in their life. The two settings are meant to symbolize the girl’s pregnancy if she would keep the baby or have an abortion. Hemingway says, “The girl...
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...But he suggests that there is a fourth issue “once she has had the abortion, he will jilt her because he has no further use for her and is not obliged to stay on with her” (Hashmi, 74). This sentence provides a good example of the American does not want to handle Jig and their unborn child. He tries to convince her to have an abortion, and then he will support her if she decides to have the child; why the sudden change of mind? For her it is not a simple task, he is willingly going to try the abortion while she delivers the baby “They just let the air in and then it is all perfectly natural” (Hemingway, 313). He prefers Jig to stay as she is, instead of her being a mother of his child. However, it would not matter anymore because of Jig understanding the type of person the American is. This whole argument could be evaded by having a protection while having sexual...
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...they will both be fine afterwards. It only means that she believes otherwise, that things won’t be fine, that things will never be like they were before. In fact, it seems as though something inside her had already changed. She realizes she wants to keep the baby. This story centers on a couple’s verbal argument, which is strongly implied by the text and widely believed by many scholars, whether the girl will have an abortion of her partner’s child. Even before this conversation she talks about their lifestyle with a hint of sarcasm and possibly boredom, “I wanted to try this new drink. That’s all we do, isn’t it-look at things and try new drinks?” You see the girl refers to their sightseeing as “things”, which shows a sense of weariness and tediousness with their regular day to day activity of the same “thing.” On the other hand, the man displays his naivety as he tries to calm her fears, saying “That’s the only thing (baby) that bothers us. It’s the only thing (baby) that’s made us unhappy.” It is clear that the American is anxious for Jig to have the abortion because he really “doesn’t want anybody but her”. As a selfish man, he is only interested in his life with Jig continuing on living their life as it has, travelling the world and having sex in different hotels, as evidenced by Hemingway’s description of the couple’s bags: “He… looked at the bags against the wall of the station....
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...JIG’S DEVELOPMENT OF MIND IN “HILLS LIKE WHITE ELEPHANT” Marta Benvinda dos Santos Silva[1] Márton Támas Gémes[2] In “Hills like white elephants”, a couple, Jig and the American, discuss whether an abortion is the best way to solve the problems they are having in their relationship. Their conversations show that the man is undoubtedly in favor of it. As he constantly repeats, it is “an awfully simple operation”. (HEMINGWAY, 1976, p. 40) Jig, on the other hand, seems to be very uncomfortable towards it, acting under pressure. However, she passes through a transformation of mind along the short story, from submissive to independent from her company’s demandings. In this paper, we intend to analyze the woman empowerment against the male dominance. We will therefore focus on the figure of Jig, whose development, can be analyzed in four major moments, according to Renner (1995): ordering drinks at the bar, the discussions about the abortion, the changes on the setting and the last conversations before the train arrives. Jig’s attitude since the very beginning reveals her dependant and submissive character as a woman. When ordering her drinks she felt the necessity of always refer to her companion and ask him for confirmation, as she needed to be sure if she was making a mistake or not: “What should we drink?”, the girl asked. […] “It’s pretty hot,” the man said. ...
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...operation, ignoring the problems that the girl has and oversimplifying the whole thing. In contrast to the American, the girl is less independent, and changes attitude often (for example regarding the hills surrounding the train station). She is also uncertain whether she wants the operation or not, and she can’t even order drinks at the bar, relying on the Americans Spanish skills. She gives all power to the American. This is classic Hemmingway, as it depicts traditional gender roles. Throughout the story, there is only conversation between the two protagonists. The omniscient teller is almost completely out of the picture. This is very ironic, since that even though they only talk, it seems as if there is no true communication between the protagonists. Another thing one will notice, is that it is never directly mentioned what operation is to take place, although considering the situation and the context, one can be fairly certain that it is an abortion. This is another ironic feature as the protagonists drink beer throughout the story, witch one should not do while pregnant. It seems as if the drinking is used as an excuse to not talk about the...
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...2014 Literary Analysis An Analysis of “Hills Like White Elephants” In Heminway’s short story Hills Like White Elephants the women is put in a difficult situation. The story talks about a women having abortion. She does not want to have the abortion but her boyfriend tries to persuade her that is it’s the right thing to do for both of their happiness in the relationship. This analysis of this paper will explain what is the couple’s relationship like in the beginning of the story, how has the relationship changed lately, and who dominates the relationship. The relationship of the couple in the beginning of the story is distant. They are making small talk with other to avoid the real issue they are dealing with. The women’s mind is somewhere else. For example, “The girl was looking off at the line of hills. They were white in the sun and the country was brown and dry. She says, “The look like white elephants”.pg. 79. This phrase gives the impression that her mind is not on him. During the first part of the story the couple talk about little of nothing. They make small talk about nothing. As the conversation goes on with couple, it becomes evident that the women is implying how she feels in the little words that she give off. For example, the conversation goes “Four reals.” We want two Anis del Tor.” “With water?” “Do you want it with water?” “It don’t know”, the girls said, “Is it good with “water” “It’s all right.” “You want them with water?” asked the women...
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